Downtown streets closed for caboose relocationNorth Denver Avenue will be closed today between West B Street and West C Street to facilitate the removal of the caboose from Depot Park. Crews from Henderson Specialties and the D&R Railroad will be at the park today to begin preparations to move the caboose to the D&R rail yard on South Arkansas Avenue. The move will make way for planned improvements to turn Depot Park into an entertainment venue for the city. "Needless to say, this move is...

Griffin: Changes needed to Common Core standardsAssociated Press LITTLE ROCK — Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin said Tuesday that Arkansas should keep some elements of Common Core, but make improvements where needed to the controversial education standards and rename them to better reflect the state’s needs. Griffin, a Republican ex-congressman, said he’ll make the recommendations to a task force he’s heading that’s looking at the future of the state’s involvement in Common Core. Formed by Republican G...

ATU receives student support fundsArkansas Tech University has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will allow the institution to continue offering extra support to students who need a helping hand in persisting to graduation. The Student Support Services (SSS) grant is for $220,000 per year for five years. The SSS program falls under the umbrella of TRIO, an initiative established by the federal government in 1964 to overcome class, social and cultural ...

News Briefs (July 29, 2015)Cotillions reception set for Aug. 4 The National League of Junior Cotillions will host the Parents’ Reception for the 2015-16 season of Junior Cotillion for the Russellville Chapter. The reception is an informative meeting about the classes, which teach all areas of manners, social skills, and basic ballroom dance steps. The reception is at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 4 at the Russellville Chamber of Commerce. All parents of students, grades sixth throu...

Pottsville to consider new water metersPottsville will consider replacing its approximately 1,675 water meters in an effort to save money. At Monday's meeting of the Pottsville City Council, aldermen agreed to move forward with the first phase of a program that would replace the city's water meters. Mayor Jerry Williams said in the last six months, there was a $23,000 discrepancy in water usage billed to Pottsville (which doesn't have its own water treatment plant) versus actual us...

Planning Commission votes down PUDAfter more than an hour of questions and comments from the public, the Russellville Planning Commission voted 4-3 against recommending a 4-acre plot of land be rezoned from R-1 (single-family) to planned unit development (PUD) during Monday’s regular meeting. Early drawings were first brought to commissioners in January by Barrett & Associates on behalf of Ron Hughes. The commission tabled action on the PUD rezoning last month. The development...

River Valley RewindGreeting to Russellville-Dardanelle area came Saturday from Tulsa, Okla., Mayor R.J. LaFortune (front, right) in first flotilla to traverse the Arkansas River’s 450-mile navigable waterway from Catoosa, Okla., to Greenville, Miss. Ralph Lafferty (back, right) of Zebco Manufacturing Co. of Tulsa arranged the two-boat flotilla, shown passing through Dardanelle Lock. At left are Tulsa television cameramen preparing a documentary on the navigation...

NRC to inspect nuclear facilityAssociated Press The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled an inspection to begin in February at an Arkansas nuclear power plant where a worker was killed nearly 2½ years ago. The 3,000 hour inspection at Arkansas Nuclear One, owned by Entergy Arkansas Inc., will be in addition to the 6,600 hours of normal annual inspections at the plant in Russellville. The inspection will verify that Entergy holds its employees accountable and that mai...

Community photo: Arkansas Press Association Mary Fisher of Danville, co-owner of Yell County Record Inc. and publisher of the Dardanelle Post Dispatch, passes the president’s gavel to Rusty Fraser of the Stone County Leader on July 11 in North Little Rock at the Arkansas Press Association convention. Fisher presided during the convention as she completed her term as APA president for the 2014-15 term. Fisher is the seventh female president in the 142-year history of the APA. Fraser is t...

News Briefs (July 28, 2015)Blood drive today The Dardanelle community will host a blood donation event from 12:30 to 5 p.m. today, at the River Valley Medical Center at 200 North 3rd St. in Dardanelle. Anyone who is healthy and 16 years or older may donate. River Valley Writers meeting today The River Valley Writers will meet at 5:30 p.m. today in Heritage Hall. Writers of every genre and writing level are invited. For more information, call 479-968-4368. Two Rivers sch...

Local student to lead 'Legally Blonde' castCONWAY — Russellville High School (RHS) student Kathy Busch will have the Arkansas River Valley thinking pink during a production of "Legally Blonde Jr." by the Red Curtain Theatre on Friday and Saturday at Hendrix College's Trieschmann Fine Arts Building. Busch, who will be a senior this year at RHS, will play the lead role in the musical, which follows the adventures of a sorority girl named Elle Woods – a Gemini with a double Capricorn moon...

Italian Gardens closes, will reopen with new owners, nameWhen one restaurant closes, another opens. Such is the case in downtown Russellville, where a notice posted Friday at Italian Gardens and on the company's social media page announced the restaurant was closed and sold to Wesley and Suzanne Hall, who plan to open a Pasta Grill in its place. The Halls were the original owners of Italian Gardens and opened the restaurant in 1994. They ran it for several years and then sold it to Spence Roberts, w...

Structure fire overnight on E. Shore Drive.The Russellville Fire Department responded to a structure fire at approximately 4:50 a.m. Monday morning at 202 E. Shore Drive. Upon arrival, fire companies found smoke and fire venting through the roof of a two story single family dwelling. The fire was extinguished, and the area of origin sustained heavy fire damage with the remainder of the residence sustaining light to moderate heat and smoke damage. The homeowners were not in the residenc...

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Local student qualifies to compete at world’s largest rodeoDENVER— Terri Singleton, a senior at Dover High School, earned a position on the Arkansas state/provincial National High School rodeo team and traveled earlier this month with fellow teammates to Rock Springs, Wyo. to compete at the 67 annual National High School Finals Rodeo (NHSFR) in the Pole Bending Competition. The NHSFR is the world’s largest rodeo and features more than 1,500 contestants from 42 states, five Canadian Provinces and Austr...

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Olin and Millicent Cook Scholarships awarded to Russellville studentsKregan Kordsmeier, Mason Rhodes, and Merideth Smith, all of Russellville, have been awarded an Olin and Millicent Scholarship. Kordsmeier will be a freshman at Arkansas Tech University in the fall, Rhodes will be a sophomore at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, and Smith will be entering her third year at A.S.U.

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Donny Edwards returns to Center for the ArtsDonny Edwards will once again bring his Elvis Presley tribute performance to the Russellville Center for the Arts. Edwards recently became a Las Vegas headliner with his Elvis Presley tribute and is also the first and only Elvis tribute performer to be allowed to perform at the Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn. Edwards has even worked with the original artists that worked with Elvis himself, such as The Jordanaires, The Sweet Inspirations, D....

UCA Nursing Department awards scholarship to RhinehartCONWAY — The Department of Nursing at the University of Central Arkansas recently announced that Ashley Rhinehart of Pottsville has been selected as the recipient of the Suzanne Harvey Graduate Nursing Scholarship for the 2015-2016 academic year.

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Lathams celebrate 50th AnniversaryDale and Donna Latham of Dardanelle are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Aug. 1, 2015. They were married at First Assembly of God Church in Russellville in 1965. The couple’s children are Ronald Dale Latham, Jr. of Dardanelle and Karla and Billy Stanton of Russellville. Grandchildren are Colten Storm Latham and Kaden Rain Latham of Dardanelle, Chelsea and Eric Schrock of Dardanelle and Haley Layne Stanton of Russellville. Great gr...